Monday, February 28, 2011

JAKKS: "Fire"

Argentina isn’t known for producing high class melodic rock bands, but Jakks are certainly doing their best to remedy the situation with this, their debut album, their sound is unashamedly melodic, taking in elements of Bonfire, Bon Jovi and a host of Eighties wannabes. The wannabes element has to come in because Jakks are no Bonfire or Bon Jovi, and more remind me of a dozen bands who tried hard but ultimately failed to hitch a ride on the coat tails of the big guns.

This is not to say that “Fire” is a bad album, because there’s some good, upbeat music here, most notably the bouncy, keyboard laden “For Your Love”, but it is an album that very rarely delivers anything more than you are expecting from a South American debut. Alec Michaels has a good voice, although a bit too accented at times, and he is helped by some competent playing and a pretty strong production, although the less said about the scary retro clothes in the band pictures the better. As a starting point, this has plenty of heart and some rather pleasing songs, but the next one needs to be that much better to give Jakks a chance of getting anywhere.